A senior British Army officer has been arrested in Afghanistan for allegedly supplying civilian casualty figures to a female human rights campaigner he is said to have befriended. Lieutenant-Colonel Owen McNally, 48, was held on suspicion of breaching the Official Secrets Act. The Ministry of Defence said that the officer was being sent back to the UK for questioning, where his case has been referred to the Metropolitan Police.
According to The Sun newspaper, Lt-Col McNally had access to the figures through his work for Nato's International Security Assistance Force, which is running military operations in Afghanistan. American generals in the Afghan capital Kabul were reported to be furious about the allegations.
The campaign group Human Rights Watch said last year that civilian deaths in Afghanistan from US and Nato air strikes nearly tripled to at least 1,633 between 2006 and 2007. The group said that it used "the most conservative figures available".
The MoD said in a statement: "We can confirm that a British Army officer has been arrested in Afghanistan on suspicion of breaching the Official Secrets Act. He is being returned to the UK for questioning. The investigation has been referred from the MoD to the Metropolitan Police and is now under consideration. No further details will be released at this stage."
Lt-Col McNally joined the Army as a private in 1977 and worked his way up through the ranks before being commissioned in 1995. He is thought to be one of the Army's most senior former non-commissioned officers. |